In the sport of ice fishing, ice fisherman makes a hole in ice covering a body of water. The ice fisherman then fishes through the hole in the ice. Typically, the area where ice fishermen fish is unprotected, and in cold weather, wind blowing across the ice sheet makes it desireable for an ice fisherman to seek some form of shelter. As a result, an ice fisherman finds it convenient to use some form of tip-up device which allows the ice fisherman to leave the immediate area of the hole in the ice. Thus, he may stay in a sheltered area or in a vehicle and watch his tip-up, and thereby observe whether a fish has taken his bait.
The utilization of a tip-up having an automatic windup mechanism is well known. U.S. Pat. No. 4,651,459 to Wurtz, entitled "Automatic Fishing Device", dated Mar. 24, 1987, discloses a fishing device which has a windup mechanism for winding the fishing line onto a reel. The Wurtz device relies upon a stop number to prevent the line from being wound onto the reel. The disadvantage to the Wurtz device is that the stop member must be positioned on the line so that it is difficult to make adjustments to the depth of bait on the line. Furthermore, the stop member must be wound onto the reel.
Another patent disclosing an ice fishing rig is U.S. Pat. No. 3,474,561 to Alfred R. McConkey, entitled "Ice Fishing Rig With Self Contained Automatic Catcher". The McConkey patent issued Oct. 28, 1969. The McConkey device provides a platform for positioning over a hole in the ice. A resilient main arm portion is locked in a down position. When there is a bite on the fishing line, a trigger mechanism is released which allows the arm portion to move up and activate an automatic pull responsive device to reel in the fishing line.
An object of this invention is to provide an improved automatic tip-up for use in fishing. The tip-up has an automatic rewind fishing reel and a latch releasably engageable with the fishing reel to prevent rewinding of the fishing reel. The latch is disengaged from the fishing reel when a fish pulls on fishing line storable on the fishing reel and connected to the latch. Disengagement of the latch from the fishing reel allows the reel to wind the fishing line onto the reel.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a fishing automatic tip-up with an automatic rewind fishing reel and a resilient flag support wherein a bite on a fishing line connected to the fishing reel allows the flag support to make a quick release of the fishing reel to wind quickly the fishing line onto the reel thereby set a hook in a fish biting on the line.
Still another object of the instant invention is to provide an improved fishing automatic tip-up which has an automatic rewind fishing reel which tip-up is convenient to transport and store.
Other objects and uses of the herein disclosed fishing automatic tip-up will become readily apparent to those skilled in the art upon consideration of the accompanying drawings and the following description of the preferred embodiment.